{"id":12517,"date":"2014-02-27T14:30:10","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T03:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=12517"},"modified":"2014-02-28T12:11:45","modified_gmt":"2014-02-28T01:11:45","slug":"does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Australia need thinking ANZACs?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ngunnawal<\/a><\/p>\n

In a new book<\/a> (and recent excerpt<\/a>), James Brown argues that the Australian defence organisation is fearful of what today\u2019s ANZACs might say if they were allowed to. This means that \u2018one of the ADF\u2019s defining traits is a lack of professional debate\u2019. He considers that militaries improve and are more likely to be operationally successful through being self-critical, and that the profession of arms is enhanced by free-wheeling debate and discussion. This thought comes from notions of a market-place of ideas<\/a>, where the best and strongest thrive, and the rest expire. This liberalist concept contrasts with authoritarianism, where all are compelled to conform and be amenable team players.<\/p>\n

James\u2019s constructive criticism of today\u2019s defence force is powerful but I would like to discuss a somewhat contrarian position tangential to his argument. From my narrow perspective, I think James may be onto something concerning the last decade or so but I don\u2019t think it was necessarily as prevalent before then.<\/p>\n

An example: in 2004 a working paper<\/a> of mine published by the RAAF\u2019s Air Power Development Centre was reported in The Australian<\/em>. While it\u2019s true my Army boss got nervous, the Defence Minister\u2019s staffer quickly assuaged internal Defence worries. He advised that Senator Robert Hill saw the paper was clearly labelled with a disclaimer that this reflected a personal view not the formal Departmental position so why was anyone concerned? A typically small-l liberal approach. By contrast, James writes that<\/a> when something similar happened to Albert Palazzo in 2012, a car and driver was dispatched to his workplace to bring him immediately to Defence headquarters for questioning and rebuke. (The matter continued<\/a> later on the Lowy blog and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

I think this is a reflection of our era. James quotes<\/a> the famous Anglo-Australian General Sir John Hackett<\/a>: \u2018When a country looks at its fighting forces, it is looking in a mirror. What a society gets from its armed services is exactly what it asks for, no more or less\u2019.\u2019 If the Australian defence organisation doesn\u2019t hold critical thinking and new ideas in high regard, quantitative data suggests neither does its parent society.<\/p>\n

ASPI was understandably delighted to be recognised as a world-class, globally respected think tank in the 2013 Global Think Tank Report<\/a>, but hidden within this is something more\u00a0general about Australia. The survey looked at some 182 countries. Australia has 29 think tanks, meagre by world standards and not numbering anywhere near the top 25 nations.<\/p>\n

Middle-power countries broadly similar to Australia like Canada have 55, the Netherlands 57 and Spain 55. Australia would have 88 think tanks if we held the world\u2019s 12th\u00a0spot as we do\u00a0in terms of size of economy. Instead, South Africa (economy #29) fills the 12th\u00a0think tank spot.<\/p>\n

It seems that Australia as a society is just not as interested in policy-focussed research and analysis as others are. In this view the Australian defence organisation simply reflects Australian society rather then being anything unusual. The creation of ASPI by the Howard Government<\/a> in 2001 to advance the defence debate is instead the outlier.<\/p>\n

Interesting maybe, but so what? Arguably, Australia has done just fine without much of this particular kind of thinking.\u00a0Greg Sheridan<\/a> writing on the same day as James\u2019 excerpt<\/a> is dismissive of those who want grand strategies devised by the thinking classes and instead argues that Australia needs to be tactically nimble and adroit. He advocates a policy of opportunism where political leaders take advantage of sudden events and new situations to advance Australia.\u00a0Opportunism<\/a> requires having the means available to react in a timely manner but leaves the ends, the objectives, to others. Greg would see Australia exploiting other\u2019s grand plans, considers John Howard did this, and believes the current government will also.<\/p>\n

In so doing, there\u2019s no real need for much of the kind of critical, creative thinking that James advocates. The others that we batten onto can provide most of the required intellectual effort. While opportunism will likely involve providing operational level forces\u201421st century ANZACs\u2014to be part of other\u2019s grand strategies, the higher level thinking about how to employ our forces is really in the domain of these others. While some may be unhappy<\/a> with this, it seems to be the approach used in Vietnam and Iraq<\/a> and probably Afghanistan<\/a>. And doubtless some will say at Gallipoli as well.<\/p>\n

James could be correct that Defence has developed an institutionalised disdain for critical debate and the market-place of ideas but this may both reflect Australian society and the policy of strategic-level opportunism that has been embraced. Australia has needed few deep thoughts in this field of endeavour and so has developed such a capability to only a limited extent. The nation relies on others to fill the intellectual gap arising. We’ve out-sourced and off-shored the problem, if you will.<\/p>\n

But that’s looking backwards. Will the future be such that opportunism is as useful an approach as in the last ten years or so?\u00a0Opportunism<\/a> exploits others, but they might be going somewhere we don\u2019t what to go. Their objectives may not be ours.\u00a0David Hale\u2019s recent paper<\/a> on China thinks this might be true of America’s future approaches, and argues that Australia will need to become more imaginative and innovative in managing its future. If so, the defence organisation can certainly change and be as it was in earlier times. Last decade\u2019s ADF hierarchy is retiring, and the new generation could choose to allow the critical debates and the free flow of ideas James advocates. Time alone will tell if such deep thoughts are both needed and allowed.<\/p>\n

Peter Layton is an independent researcher completing a PhD on grand strategy at UNSW. He has been an associate professor at the US National Defense University. Image courtesy of Department of Defence<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a new book (and recent excerpt), James Brown argues that the Australian defence organisation is fearful of what today\u2019s ANZACs might say if they were allowed to. This means that \u2018one of the ADF\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":12524,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[44,203,21,707],"class_list":["post-12517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australian-defence-force","tag-culture","tag-strategy-2","tag-think-tanks"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDoes Australia need thinking ANZACs? | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does Australia need thinking ANZACs? | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a new book (and recent excerpt), James Brown argues that the Australian defence organisation is fearful of what today\u2019s ANZACs might say if they were allowed to. This means that \u2018one of the ADF\u2019s ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-27T03:30:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-02-28T01:11:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/anzacs-thinking.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"984\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"642\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter Layton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter Layton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/anzacs-thinking.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/anzacs-thinking.png\",\"width\":984,\"height\":642,\"caption\":\"Ngunnawal elder, Aunty Agnes Shea conducts the Welcome to Country ceremony held at the Australian Defence College, Canberra.\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/\",\"name\":\"Does Australia need thinking ANZACs? | The Strategist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-27T03:30:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-02-28T01:11:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/29360a408b5260662f7ef47ed8b412bc\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Does Australia need thinking ANZACs?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/29360a408b5260662f7ef47ed8b412bc\",\"name\":\"Peter Layton\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3335f8637f873522c3c11d3b852df6cb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3335f8637f873522c3c11d3b852df6cb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Peter Layton\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/peter-layton\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Does Australia need thinking ANZACs? | The Strategist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Does Australia need thinking ANZACs? | The Strategist","og_description":"In a new book (and recent excerpt), James Brown argues that the Australian defence organisation is fearful of what today\u2019s ANZACs might say if they were allowed to. This means that \u2018one of the ADF\u2019s ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/","og_site_name":"The Strategist","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org","article_published_time":"2014-02-27T03:30:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-02-28T01:11:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":984,"height":642,"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/anzacs-thinking.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Peter Layton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ASPI_org","twitter_site":"@ASPI_org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter Layton","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/","name":"The Strategist","description":"ASPI's analysis and commentary site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/anzacs-thinking.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/anzacs-thinking.png","width":984,"height":642,"caption":"Ngunnawal elder, Aunty Agnes Shea conducts the Welcome to Country ceremony held at the Australian Defence College, Canberra."},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/","name":"Does Australia need thinking ANZACs? | The Strategist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2014-02-27T03:30:10+00:00","dateModified":"2014-02-28T01:11:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/29360a408b5260662f7ef47ed8b412bc"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/does-australia-need-thinking-anzacs\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Does Australia need thinking ANZACs?"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/29360a408b5260662f7ef47ed8b412bc","name":"Peter Layton","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3335f8637f873522c3c11d3b852df6cb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3335f8637f873522c3c11d3b852df6cb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Peter Layton"},"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/peter-layton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12517"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12517"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12531,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12517\/revisions\/12531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}